The invention is based on a method for the treatment of fiber pieces of all shapes on an industrial scale, in particular long fibers, short fibers or the like, which are added to other materials as reinforcing material.
It is known in the art how to produce composite materials, in particular fiber reinforced materials, that consist of a matrix and reinforcing material embedded in the matrix. The incorporated material of such composite materials can consist of fiber bits that are thickened and rounded-off at the ends. Such composite material has higher quality mechanical characteristics. When the corners are rounded off, there is very little or no stress concentration at the ends of the fiber pieces, which means that cracks only appear at higher loads. This knowledge is based on the fact that incorporated fibers with rounded and/or thickened ends, rather than the sharp-edged ends that can be caused by breaking, cutting or the like exhibit smaller tension peaks in their surrounding matrix in the vicinity of these ends and therefore have lower stress concentration. Even though these advantages are known in the art, it has not been possible in the past to economically mass-produce fiber pieces, especially long fibers, short fibers or the like, and especially those made of glass fiber material, that have the desired rounded off and/or thickened ends.
It is the underlying purpose of the invention to therefore provide a method and/or an apparatus that facilitates the commercial treatment of fiber pieces with rounded and/or thickened exposed ends.